r, for all that; for Old England is fat feeding-ground for
north-country cattle.'

CHAPTER XVII

NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER

Our history must now, as the old romancers wont to say, 'leave to
tell' of the quest of Alan Fairford, and instruct our readers of the
adventures which befell Darsie Latimer, left as he was in the precarious
custody of his self-named tutor, the Laird of the Lochs of Solway,
to whose arbitrary pleasure he found it necessary for the present to
conform himself.

In consequence of this prudent resolution, and although he did not
assume such a disguise without some sensations of shame and degradation,
Darsie permitted Cristal Nixon to place over his face, and secure by a
string, one of those silk masks which ladies frequently wore to preserve
their complexions, when exposed to the air during long journeys on
horseback. He remonstrated somewhat more vehemently against the long
riding-skirt, which converted his person from the waist into the female
guise, but was obliged to concede this point also.

The metamorphosis was then complete; for the fair reader must be
informed, that in those rude times, the ladies, when they honoured the
masculine dress by assuming any part of it, wore just such hats, coats,
and waistcoats as the male animals themselves made use of, and had no
notion of the elegant compromise betwixt male and female attire, which
has now acquired, PAR EXCELLENCE, the name of a HABIT. Trolloping
things our mothers must have looked, with long square-cut coats, lacking
collars, and with waistcoats plentifully supplied with a length of
pocket, which hung far downwards from the middle. But then they had
some advantage from the splendid colours, lace, and gay embroidery
which masculine attire then exhibited; and, as happens in many similar
instances, the finery of the materials made amends for the want of
symmetry and grace of form in the garments themselves. But this is a
digression.

In the court of the old mansion, half manor-place, half farm-house, or
rather a decayed manor-house, converted into an abode for a Cumberland
tenant, stood several saddled horses. Four or five of them were mounted
by servants or inferior retainers, all of whom were well armed with
sword, pistol, and carabine. But two had riding furniture for the use
of females--the one being accoutred with a side-saddle, the other with a
pillion attached to the saddle.

Darsie's heart beat quicker within him; he easil